Welcome to the family forum. This is a place for sharing what's on your mind in a safe environment where we all know and care about each other. Nothing is really off topic because the topic is "us." My vision is that we'll be able to talk openly about family issues, parenting, religion--all the things that matter most to us--along with day-to-day events and more mundane topics.

Unlike many online discussion boards, we can probably get by here with a minimum of "rules." Since we have a wide range of experience with online forums, though, it might help to give a brief summary of etiquette and best practices:

Stick to the topic. The informal rule on all boards is whoever starts the thread chooses the topic for that thread. If your comments are likely to derail the thread significantly, consider making it a new topic of its own. Seth and I expect to do very little moderating on this board, but we may occasionally split a thread in two when it makes sense to do so. It makes it much easier to find things later.

Attribute quotations properly. The easiest way is to use the "quote" button visible in the top right corner when reading what someone else wrote. It's OK, even recommended, to pare down the quote to the part that's pertinent to your comments--just be cautious about taking things out of context.

Share personal details only with permission. A good rule in any group, but even more important here where we all know each other in real life, is to not tell personal stories that involve others without their consent.

Give others the benefit of the doubt. Online forums are fun, and the exercise of writing can really help to develop your ideas and learn from others' as well. But we're limited to words and a few "emoticons" to get our meanings across. The point is it's very easy to take things wrongly or misunderstand each other. Sarcasm is particularly risky, so a best practice would be to avoid it or at least use the wink icon to avoid offense.

Be respectful. The bottom line is we all have different views, beliefs, and experiences. Hopefully it goes without saying that disagreeing at times about ideas doesn't mean we don't value the individual. The measure of the success of this forum will be how close it brings us, not whether we ultimately agree on any given subject.

I hope you'll give it a whirl. Ask questions if you're not sure how things work, and happy posting. We want to hear what you have to say!